r> The possibility of attaining the supramundane path without possession
r> of a mundane jhana has been questioned by some Theravada scholars,
r> but the Visuddhimagga clearly admits this possibility when it
r> distinguishes between the path arisen in a dry-insight mediator and
r> the path arisen in one who possesses a jhana but does not use it as a
r> basis for insight (Vism.666-67; PP.779).
That's a wrong conclusion.
Visuddhimagga 666-667 (XXI, 112) tells:
"To deal with these [three theories] in order: According to the
governance by insight, the path arisen in a bare-insight (dry-insight)
worker, and the path arisen in one who possesses a jhana attainment
but who has not made the jhana the basis for insight, and the path
made to arise by comprehending unrelated formations after using the
first jhana as the basis for insight, are paths of the first jhana
only."
Here Ven. Buddhaghosa clearly says that all these three paths are of
the first jhana.
r> Textual evidence that there
r> can be arahats lacking mundane jhana is provided by the Susima Sutta
r> (S.ii, 199-23) together with is commentaries. When the monks in the
r> sutta are asked how they can be arahats without possessing
r> supernormal powers of the immaterial attainments, they reply: "We are
r> liberated by wisdom" (pannavimutta kho mayam). The commentary glosses
r> this reply thus: "We are contemplatives, dry-insight meditators,
r> liberated by wisdom alone" (Mayam nijjhanaka sukkhavipassaka
r> pannamatten'eva vimutta ti, SA.ii,117). The commentary also states
r> that the Buddha gave his long disquisition on insight in the
r> sutta "to show the arising of knowledge even without concentration"
r> (vina pi samadhimevam nanuppattidassanattham, SA.ii,117). The
r> subcommentary establishes the point by explaining "even without
r> concentration" to mean "even without concentration previously
r> accomplished reaching the mark of serenity" (samathalakkhanappattam
r> purimasiddhamvina pi samadhin ti), adding that this is said in
r> reference to one who makes insight his vehicle (ST.ii,125). "
This argument is quite circumferential and inconclusive.
There's quite straightforward commentary to Kitagiri sutta describing
sukkhavipassaka as one who attained rupa jhanas: